11 July 2010

Caravan Parks and Dogs

| toadstool
Join the conversation
3

My wife and I have decided to look into buying an onsite van on the south coast. We have two small dogs and we thought it wouldn’t be hard to find a pet friendly caravan park where we could buy a van or cabin as there appears to be quite a few parks on the south coast that allow dogs.

Wrong! Several parks state on their websites that dogs are allowed but when you enquire about it an interesting trend arises. Some parks state pets are only alllowed during off peak times which is fine, but I’ve come across several parks that although have a pet friendly policy for casual campers have the condition that onsite van owners can’t have pets.

What’s that all about? Surely if you own the van, and the park is pet friendly, you can bring your dog? Does anyone have any insights as to why this would be a common scenario?

The other situation we’ve come across is at one particular caravan park at Tomakin that seems to have a lot of vans for sale on AllClassifieds.

We’ve enquired to several of the owners and they’ve all come back saying that the park is pet friendly in one way or another.

On enquiring to the actual caravan park I’ve been told that they changed their pet policy about five years ago and that while existing owners can bring their dogs, new owners can’t.

Firstly, these owners are being a bit dishonest, unless they do not know about the change in policy. Are all these people selling because of the change in policy, or because of a change in owners and they don’t like the way the park is managed anymore?

I would love to hear from anybody who has any advice, recommendations or insights into caravan parks and pet policies.

Join the conversation

3
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

In regards to the park with allot for sale it may be worth checking this out as a friend of mine was looking to buy one a while ago. Apparently your buying the caravan for X amount of dollars and paying the site fees as rent, the one he looked at they wanted to redevelop that part of the park and put in cabins next to the good view of the lagoon. So if he bought the caravan eventually it would need to be relocated either to another part of the same park or another park. Not cheap but you still own your $10,000 caravan. Worth asking questions.

Some bark all night and shit everywhere, although that is usually the fault of the owners for not acting on the annoyance. When one goes on a holiday, many people want to escape this sort of “annoyance” that one potentially encounters in suburbia. For me, its normally not an issue. If the dog barks constantly, and it annoys me, I tell the owner or park manager. However, this is rarely the case that a pet whilst on holidays annoys us, as you have stated, most van parks dont cater for pets. On the flip side, Kiola Holiday Resort (not the Big4), is a pet freindly park, the managers are uber freindly, and we always find pet owners very responsible there.

Whitworth Spanner3:53 pm 11 Jul 10

I used to have a van at Pleasurelea about 5 years ago. When I bought, they said no to new dogs.
Existing owners were allowed a “small” dog. Don’t know what the definition of a “small” dog was.
I think their plan was to have zero dogs once the last one met it’s maker.
Loved the park though. Having gas, milk, bread, ice and bait etc available on site is a huge bonus.

If I was to do it again, I’d go for South Durras for the lake and sea combo. There is also a boarding kennel on the road in to Sth Durras if that’s an option.

Otherwise, Burrill Lake…

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.